The present invention relates to a composition and method of treating synthetic textile material used in yarns, textiles and carpets to scour the textile material, make it more susceptible to dyeing, and/or to enhance other properties of the textile material while reducing the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in effluents resulting from the treatment. The composition comprises clay and appropriate formulation adjuvants.
Various types of clays, particularly smectite, have been used in the past for treating wastewater, for bleaching edible oils, in laundering wash and rinse cycles, and in fabric softening in automatic clothes dryers, among many other uses.
Bentonite clay has been used in combination with a wetting agent and a sequestrant for bleaching cotton. The clay adsorbs color bodies that are oily impurities on the cotton fiber.
Although there has been a long-felt need for a product that effectively scours synthetic textile material of the type used in yarns particularly suitable for carpets, as well as the carpeting material made from them, and there has been a like long-felt need for the use of such a product which does not contaminate effluent with high BOD and COD discharge levels, those familiar with the carpet dyeing and finishing industry have not found a solution to these problems. The present invention is a solution to the long-felt, but unsolved problems particularly in the carpet industry, but it also is applicable more broadly, for example to textile material used as wearing apparel and particularly spandex-containing material. Use of the composition of the present invention adsorbed and precipitated organic impurities, which reduced subsequent BOD and COD in effluents. Dyeing of the treated textile material, and especially the carpet material and yarn used for carpets, is noticeably superior compared to material treated with the current scouring products.